The Daily Aggie :: 09/20/10

The Aggie soccer team shut out Lamar 4-0 on Sunday afternoon to improve to 5-1-2 on the season. The Aggies have now pitched three consecutive shutouts and have not allowed a goal in the last 335 minutes dating back to a goal by Northern Arizona's Carolyn Savage 15 seconds before halftime. The Aggies have four shutouts through eight games this season matching the four shutouts they had all of last season.

The Aggie offense has also helped their defense as they've score early in each the last three games. The Aggie goals have come in the 9th, 2nd and 8th minutes. Coach Needham has made that a point of emphasis with his team. "We ask our team to set the tone early. See if we can get an early goal," says Coach Needham. "We talk about key moments of the game. The big moments for us, we talk about moments we call "Big Five" moments which would be first five minutes and last five minutes of the half and first five minutes of the second half and last five minutes of the game. Both Friday night and today I think we did a pretty nice job of handling those big five moments in our favor."

The Aggies finish the home non-conference portion of their schedule undefeated as they've gone 5-0-2 at home thus far. The Aggies finish up non-conference play on the road this week as they'll face Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo. and Wyoming in Laramie, Wyo. Northern Colorado will be a stiff test for the Aggies as the Bears are 5-3-1 on the season and they've score 17 goals on the season while allowing only 11. Wyoming is much improved this year as they're 5-5 on the season. Wyoming has scored 14 goals on the season and has allowed just 15.

Coach Needham pointed to the fact that the Aggies are playing well heading into conference play, which was also his goal last season. "The big thing again is that we're playing our best soccer heading into conference and we're starting to hit on cylinders which is good."